Why we need to fail

November 10, 2014

Are you a talent, or do you have a talent? Are you a failure, or do you fail sometimes? In the video below, Derek Sivers (indeed, the one from the dancing guy video) describes why he thinks we need to fail and be proud of it. Along some experiments he argues that failing leads to:

More effective learning. If we always do what we did before, we will get what we have, and not learn a lot. It is fun to realise we are good at something by doing it over and over again, but it brings us little in terms of growth. Like physical training, getting better has to hurt a little.

Growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. If you believe you can grow your own talents, rather than that talent is innate (you either have it or you don’t), you will expect that putting more effort in learning will lead to better results. And it does. This is a nice link to the concept of ‘expectancy’ (See post “Three types of expecations that drive motivation“).

Experimentation. By seeing everyting as an experiment, allowing things to go wrong, we learn more. It helps to stretch our experienct to areas that we would never have experienced if we would aim to succeed in everything we do.